“The Man Who Saved Central City” is episode one of season two of The Flash.
In the season one finale, “Fast Enough”, Barry had agreed to Thawne’s bargain; send Thawne home and save Barry’s mother. When Barry went back to the night his mother was murdered, Future Barry had seen him and told him not to. Why, is not known. So Barry returned to the present and stopped Thawne leaving. Barry’s fight with Thawne was not going well and Thawne was just about to kill him – when Eddie shot himself. it seems that Eddie was Eobard’s ancestor and, with Eddie dead, Thawne was erased from history (really, shouldn’t that cause more problems?). Thawne’s death had caused the wormhole to become a singularity, which promptly started sucking up Central City. Barry raced up to the singularity to try and disrupt its motion with his speed.
This episode opens with Barry fighting Captain Cold and Heat Wave – okay, what happened to the singularity? Firestorm shows up and together he and Barry defeat the supervillains. Barry heads back to the lab, where everyone congratulates them on their victory. Including Wells/Thawne and Eddie. Now, that’s weird. Thawne steps out of his chair and tells Barry that he’s ready to do all of this on his own. Barry is actually standing in an empty lab.
It’s been six months since the singularity nearly destroyed Central City. Barry is now working on his own, as that’s the only way to keep the people he loves safe – according to him, anyway. There are signs around the city about Flash Day, celebrating The Man Who Saved Central City.
Barry arrives at a crime scene, as himself, and Joe is there. The victim is a welder at the nuclear plant, and he was killed by someone very strong or very large, according to Barry. Joe says, or something, but Barry tells him it’s not Grodd. Joe is rather pleased by that. Joe talks about Flash Day, saying that the mayor is going to give Barry the key to the city. Barry says that he isn’t interested in getting an award; Joe says that he loves getting awards, such as all those science trophies he got at school. Barry’s response is that he deserved them. In the crowd near the crime scene, a man is photographing Barry.
At the police department, there’s a news story in the background about Flash Day, and the freak black hole that nearly destroyed the city. Freak black hole? Makes it sound like a tornado or something! Joe has a new scientific advisor, for the meta-human taskforce – Cisco. Cisco has developed something for taking down meta-humans, something he calls The Boot. Captain Singh isn’t willing to give Cisco a badge though. Caitlin is apparently working at Mercury Labs now, and Joe, when Iris turns up, suggests that she talk to Barry.
Barry is renovating Jitters when Iris arrives. She mentions that she’s considering writing an article about all the local businesses that are being renovated at night. Iris says that the people need to see the man who saved the city, but Barry tells her that he didn’t save Central City; she, of all people, should know that.
Finally, we see what happened after Barry ran to the singularity. He managed to stabilise it and Dr stein has a way of dissipating the singularity. This requires he, and Ronnie, to fly into the singularity as Firestorm, and separate between the inner and outer event horizons to merge them. Which is dangerous. When they do that, Barry is able to save Dr Stein, but there’s no sign of Ronnie. In the present, Barry is clearly bearing massive guilt regarding the deaths of both Eddie and Ronnie.
At the Flash Day celebration, Cisco asks Joe if he’s expecting trouble. Joe tells him that cops always expect trouble, but in this city, Joe expects super evil flying monsters. Cisco thinks that’s a good expectation. The man who was photographing Barry at the crime scene earlier is also in the crowd. Barry himself does show up, then something is thrown at the mayor and Barry has to whisk him out of the way. The person who threw it has a mask hiding his face and is wearing armour. Cisco, when he sees this, sees a vision of the figure in what may be another timeline – Thawne told Cisco that he had gained powers from the particle accelerator explosion too.
Barry gets knocked down and The Boot doesn’t work when Joe uses it, as the attacker just grows in size and strength. However, Barry and Joe manage to knock him back with an explosion, which causes the mask to remove temporarily, revealing the man’s face. Which Joe recognises as Al Rothstein – the welder who was found murdered earlier.
Rothstein’s body was in the morgue when the attack happened, which is a pretty convincing alibi. Plus, he was in Hawaii on his honeymoon when the particle accelerator exploded, so he couldn’t be a meta-human. He also doesn’t have a twin. Yet it also clearly looks to be Rothstein. Iris tells Joe that Barry can’t do it alone any longer, and that they should stop letting Barry push them away. If Barry won’t take their help, basically stop asking and just provide it anyway.
Barry has to finally accept that he can’t do everything by himself. He also gets a visit from a lawyer acting on Harrison Wells’ – Eobard Thawne’s – behalf. Thawne had left S.T.A.R. Labs to Barry but it’s going to go into receivership. The lawyer also has a video message recorded by Thawne for Barry.
By the end of the episode, it looks like something new is cropping up. Probably connected to why there are two Al Rothsteins.